United Nations officials have warned the federal government that proposed changes to national security laws would impose “draconian criminal penalties” on the freedom of expression and may be “inconsistent” with Australia’s obligations under international treaties.

In a submission to a parliamentary committee reviewing proposed new secrecy laws, a group of UN special rapporteurs have argued the legislation would “disproportionately chill the work of media outlets and journalists” and expose human rights campaigners, activists and academics to criminal charges.

The proposed laws contain prison sentences of up to 20 years for “dealing with” or publishing protected information that would cause harm to Australia’s interests, subject to a limited defence for public interest journalism.

The changes strengthened defences for journalists under the legislation – but did not provide a blanket exemption – and narrowed the scope of what would constitute inherently harmful information.

But a submission from three UN special rapporteurs has warned the legislation may be in breach of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and related human rights standards.

David Kaye, the United Nations special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Fionnuala D. Ní Aoláin, the special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, and Michel Forst, the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, said the legislation was potentially “inconsistent” with Australia’s treaty obligations.

“In particular, we are gravely concerned that the bill would impose draconian criminal penalties on expression and access to information that is central to public debate and accountability in a democratic society,” the submission states.

“For example, several offences under the bill would not only penalize disclosures of government information in the public interest, but also expose journalists, activists, and academics that merely receive such information to criminal liability.

“Such extensive criminal prohibitions, coupled with the threat of lengthy custodial sentences and the lack of meaningful defences, are likely to have a disproportionate chilling effect on the work of journalists, whistleblowers, and activists seeking to hold the government accountable to the public.”

While the proposed changes to the bill would tighten the definition of harmful information by tying it to classification, critics have questioned whether the bill will capture information unrelated to secrecy. They have also raised concerns about over-classification in government departments.

The UN officials said the definition of inherently harmful information “potentially encompasses information bearing inappropriate classification markers, information submitted to government agencies or regulators that have little or no connection to national security or public safety, and even information that individuals may successfully request for under other domestic laws, such as the Freedom of Information Act”.

For example, they questioned whether the bill would capture information related to the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission.

“We are concerned that the cumulative effect of these restrictions, coupled with the lack of meaningful defences, will disproportionately restrict disclosures of government-related information that is nevertheless in the public interest, particularly disclosures that draw critical public scrutiny to government fraud, waste, and abuse,” the submission states.

Why did they do it? Why did they do it? Why did they do it?... Okay, anyone with a brain would HAVE TO drop Barnaby into a pile of shit and leave him there to associate with the environment — which to say the least would not be new to him... So, the question is answered. So why ask more?

Asked about Mr Joyce's fiery response, in which he downplayed the WA branch's ties to the federal Nationals, Ms Davies would not bite.

"I have no interest in further inflaming the situation," Ms Davies said.

It was a similar response when the leader was asked about the WA branch's influence on a national stage.

"Our statement is self-explanatory," Ms Davies said.

Okay, the previous WA government fucked up the finances of WA... Well it's easy to see why. The mining boom was going gangbusters and the Liberal/National (CONservative) ministers took their eye off the REAL COSTS of things, because cash was coming in the coffers at a million miles and hour, until it suddenly stopped. So what could have been bought for 2 ad 6 pence had been bought from mates for 4 pounds... Did I say mates? I meant alleged mates... or allege acquaintances or definitely unknown entities...

Barnaby Joyce says there was no conflict of interest in his ownership of more than $500,000 worth of land holdings, which is why he did not declare it during cabinet deliberations about an inland rail project that passes within 15km of it.

Joyce declared the rural property at Gwabegar on his register of interests, but reportedly did not declare the land holding in cabinet when in 2016 it passed the proposal for the Melbourne-to-Brisbane inland rail brought by the then-infrastructure minister, Darren Chester.

While the #beetrooter saga has sucked all the oxygen out of the national political debate for the past fortnight, the Coalitiongovernment is confronted by a more existential crisis. Not of morality, but of economics.

At the heart of that effort was the faith that his much touted company tax cuts would trickle through the economy via increased demand for labour that would inevitably led to higher wages across the economy.

This is the sort of economic that is presented as a series of immutable truths, based on the premise of individual rationality and consumer sovereignty, the complexity of the world reduced to simple mathematical equations.

Of course, a lot of the economic theory is spent explaining why reality had a tendency to deliver different answers to the ones the equations predict, but as long as you were looking in the rear-view mirror it all made sense.

What passes as economic debate in Australia today may not be called “neo-classical”, but take the treasurer’s lines and you get a fair idea: penalty rates distort the market, immigration drives growth by increasing the demand for goods and services.

These propositions are presented by the government as articles of faith, rejecting those who disagree as flat-earthers (an interesting position given elements of the Coalition’s tendency to reject the disciplines of more mainstream branches of science).

But as figures included in last week’s Essential Report illustrates, the public rejects many of these propositions.

Will the mainstream media hold back in paparazzi-style pursuit of photos? Not a chance — and that is sad. Publicity will hardly be celebrity status. It will have the dubious distinction of notoriety, something no child should have to grow up with. It's hardly a great welcome into the world.

The best thing Barnaby could do for his fifth child is to minimise collateral damage by getting out of politics and the public gaze to focus on nurturing an Australian family. But Barnaby’s ego is too inflated for that to happen.

Taking a week off, as prescribed by Prime Minister Turnbull, Barnaby is supposedly considering his future, which needs no consideration in his eyes. Massive media humiliation, negative opinion polls and even American TV satire cannot burst the bubble that is the shameless ego of Barnaby Joyce. He is digging in.

The Senate has called for his resignation for breaching ministerial standards.

Barnaby Joyce and his pregnant partner Vikki Campion claim they have been hounded out of their rent free apartment, and fear their baby son will be viewed " somehow less worthy than other children". In an exclusive interview with Fairfax Media in Armidale....

Well Barnaby Thomas Gerard Joyce you have a choice... Quit politics NOW, do not become a LOBYIST and live happily ever after in your own mess. Should you stay in POLITICS, you give the profession a worse name than prostitutes and journalists, which to say the least should be higher in our esteem than they are, because of some pen pushers, practitioners and the catholic church... And no, the kids have the right to exist well despite the crap of their father... They won't be hounded. They will be respected by the public.

JULIE BISHOP: To all my dear friends at the Portsea Polo Day, I say sorry for my non appearance. For all the pain and suffering I have caused you – and me – I say sorry.

I promise never again will you, or I, suffer such an indignity. I am so sorry.

13 February 2008

JULIA GILLARD: To all people who saw me in camera shot, sitting behind Kevin Rudd as he addressed our nation, I say sorry for my awful hair cut. What was I thinking? I look like I am auditioning for a gig in a Devo tribute band. Tim will be in trouble when I get home. The style was his doing. Kevin may have thought I was trying to upstage him. I’d never do something like that.

I also say sorry for my stuff up in 2016, when I forgot all about my house in Northcote. Fuck it. I’ve just remembered. I buried the papers from the British High Commission acknowledging my renunciation of British citizenship in a tin container in the backyard of that place. Fuck! Oh well, it’s too late now. If only I’d remembered earlier.

20 October 2015

TONYABBOTT: Sorry about breaking that table in my office, but I’m sure you can all understand how tired and emotional I was at the time.

Working on a few ideas. Maybe a talk show of my own somewhere in China. Stay tuned.

7 February 2018

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Sorry for leaving the ‘Closing The Gap’ event in Parliament House early, but Lucy messaged me that I forgot to put the bins out, and I only had half an hour before the garbage truck arrived.

The Turnbull Government has launched an all-out attack on our democratic rights.

This video from top viral media lab Juice Media explains exactly what's at stake. And with politicians headed back to Canberra for Parliament on Monday, this is the perfect time to make it go viral and make sure everyone knows what's at stake.

The Government circles around and around, but it never gets anywhere and it never lands. At times it seems sure to consume itself in a fiery ball, or run out of fuel and crash, but it never quite does. So the plane of state keeps circling, lower and lower, trailing smoke and sparks, battling through gales and headwinds, with lightning crackling all around it.

In the cockpit, over the intercom, debonair Captain Turnbull attempts to reassure the panicked passengers behind him

“Please remain calm and don’t panic. Everything is perfectly in order. In fact, it is better than that. Despite facing some challenges, such as a severe electrical storm, losing one of our jet engines and being completely rudderless, this aeroplane is achieving substantial success and is well on course to deliver outstanding results for all passengers.”

The pilot takes his hands from the controls to airily emphasise his point.

Screams are heard in the back as the plane drops 200 metres before the controls are casually collected again and the plane slowly levels out. The urbane Captain smiles confidently at a startled flight assistant who has rushed into the cabin to investigate. She backs away slowly, her eyes wide.

Around the runway the aeroplane circles, narrowly missing hills and tall buildings as it sinks ever lower each time.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern — who flew into Sydney on Thursday night for a 24-hour visit — admits she'd struggle if she was operating in the Australian political environment.

In an interview with The Conversation, Ms Ardern said while politics in her country is very robust, "I have observed and thought, 'Gosh there is another level there in Australia'".

We've seen yet again this week how low that level can fall.

When on Wednesday Cabinet Minister Michaelia Cash delivered her extraordinary threat to, "name every young woman in Mr Shorten's office over which rumours in this place abound", she didn't just insult identifiable individuals — she also further debased our already-degraded political system.

Imagine if someone had said, out of nowhere and with no supporting substance, that they were ready, "to expose rumours that surround Senator Cash", Senator Cash would be justifiably outraged. She'd say: "What are you talking about?" She'd want an apology.

And yet when Senator Cash — a former minister for women, incidentally — was challenged, she initially offered only the most qualified withdrawal: "If anyone has been offended by my remarks, I withdraw".

It wasn't until Thursday afternoon that she withdrew her comments "unreservedly". There was no apology to the women.

The really sad case of the really awful politics in Australia is that most people don't care. Barbeque on Sunday, sickie on Monday, bullying on Tuesday, rubbish day on Wednesday, fiddling like Nero on Thursday, "being there" (asleep on the job) on Friday, kids to the footy on Saturday. Repeat. And this is the timetable for our glorious good-for-nothing parliamentarians, before they vote themselves a payrise and an extra set of rorting travel allowances, as they go on holidays — all this while they insult each others in public, like in a bar brawl.

That was a quarter of a century ago. Contrast Michaelia Cash. During estimates hearings in October last year, she misled the Senate five times about whether her own staff had tipped off the media ahead of a raid by the federal police on the offices of the AWU. After the dinner break, during which Cash read Alice Workman’s story on BuzzFeed that reported the media had in fact been tipped off by staff in Cash’s office, the minister came back in and made a brief statement:

“Chair, during the dinner break I sought further assurances from my staff. I have just been advised that, without my knowledge, one staff member in my office, in the course of discussions with journalists, indicated that he had received information – indicated that he had received information that a raid may take place. I am advised that this information came from a media source. I was not aware of it at the time and was not aware of it earlier today in estimates. This took place without my knowledge and was not authorised by me. As previously indicated, I was not notified of the raids until I watched them unfold on the television. My staff member has resigned.”

Cash simply denied she had ever misled the Senate and has remained in office, despite a blizzard of negative headlines and calls for her resignation. As New Matilda’s Ben Eltham wrote: “no one resigns for misleading parliament anymore. It’s just another example of the declining standards of political integrity in this country.”

In the short time since, in the wake of Barnaby Joyce’s resignation, standards appear to have slipped further. Now, Cash has been forced to withdraw threats to name female staffers in Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s office whom she claimed to have heard rumours about. In the face of a wave of condemnation, the prime minister today defended the indefensible, saying she was “bullied and provoked”. Peter Dutton has complained [$]: “We’ve sat here taking a morals lecture from Bill Shorten in relation to Barnaby Joyce over the last few weeks and people know that there’s a history of problems in Bill Shorten’s personal life, Tony Burke’s personal life. And to be lectured by the Labor Party really sticks in the craw.” And it has emerged [$] that since 2015 Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop has claimed $32,000 in taxpayer-funded family travel for her long-term property developer boyfriend David Panton, despite not having disclosed his financial interests on the parliamentary register because she has not classified him as her spouse or de facto partner.

Ministerial accountability is shot, parliamentary entitlements are being abused, and we seem about to be overwhelmed by a tidal wave of sleaze. Introducing a national ICAC is the very least we can do.

Harsher welfare measures that force friends to vouch for the relationship status of social security recipients are damaging and are at odds with the standards applied to Barnaby Joyce and Julie Bishop in recent controversies, a single mothers’ group says.

Tasmanian Labor leader Rebecca White has suggested it might be worth considering a "bonking ban" for the state's parliamentarians, in the wake of Primary Industries Minister Sarah Courtney's decision to stand down after revealing she was having a relationship with the head of the department she controlled.

Key points:

Primary Industries Minister stood down after declaring her relationship with her department head

Opposition Leader Bec White says a "bonking ban" may be needed for parliamentarians

With Ms Courtney [Liberal — CONservative] sitting behind him, Premier Will Hodgman told Parliament on Tuesday she had stepped down after declaring that she had started a "personal relationship" with her department head John Whittington.

While Ms Courtney will face a code of conduct investigation, the Liberals face the prospect of their slender hold on government coming under increased pressure just eight months after being elected.

Ms White addressed probity concerns, saying there needed to be a prompt inquiry into Ms Courtney's possible conflicts of interest.